Failure to keep the tongue in check does not simply tarnish a Christian’s reputation; it renders his whole religion worthless. Renders it useless, impotent, and devoid of force and power. In other words, an unbridled tongue takes a person’s whole public profession and divests it of potency and usefulness. Like a small leak in the hull of a magnificent ship, the tongue has the capacity to sabotage the whole vessel.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. (James 1:26)
It’s no surprise that an age of unbridled passion should also be an age of unbridled speech. The tongue, after all, is the spokesman of the heart, and if the heart is allowed to roam free, it’s only natural for the tongue to follow suit. This, ultimately, is the reason underneath the various sins of the tongue we find running wild in our culture, families, and churches at present. Having “followed our hearts,” we have surrendered ourselves to the whims of feeling and desire, and thus unwittingly opened the lid to a whole host of destructive and harmful verbal vices. The heart, it turns out, is like a spigot: open it, and a “world of unrighteousness” issues forth (Js. 3:6).
Now, while the tongue’s capacity for destruction is of course a matter of interest for people and cultures generally, it is a matter of special importance for Christians. And this is because, as James warns us here, a man’s entire profession can be discredited through neglect of this one point.